I remember taking long meandering walks as a child fully exploring the neighborhoods near my house. Children don’t do this anymore. It’s considered far too dangerous to have children out of the sight of adults. Kids today are under constant supervision. Their time is structured and replete with organized activities. There’s soccer practice, violin lessons, judo, ballet, after school care, swim class, organized sports and play dates.
We didn’t have play dates when I was a kid, we were our own social secretaries. We also had time to ourselves. Time to think and let our imaginations run free — which we did. We organized our own recreations even putting together baseball games with a dozen or so kids. It helped that we weren’t shackled by video games and computers. We talked to each other — in person.
True, we spent far too much time in front of the TV but we were all watching the same programs at the same time and discussed the shows the next day.We didn't have to wait for Tommy to watch a show. You either saw it when it aired or not at all. There were no recordings, no tapes, no DVDs. You had to watch a show that night or wait for months for re-runs.
Saturdays we’d go to the movies without an adult taking us let alone sitting with us. Matinees were fifty cents — thirty-five at the Oaks. There were double features that followed news reels, travelogues, and best of all, cartoons. Imagine cartoons in color (everyone still had black and white TV sets) on a big screen!
We also spent a lot of time riding our bicycles. No one wore a helmet and the very notion would have seemed silly. Play structures, then called jungle gyms, were, in comparison to what you have today, death traps. The padding underneath was hardly more than what you’d get with a carpet.
There were bullies. One harassed me. I wouldn’t have dreamed of involving an adult. I took care of him myself. Other kids weren’t as brave or strong.
My friends included Jews, African-Americans, Asian Americans and Latinos. I never gave their ethnicity, religion or national heritage a thought. (Once I was playing with a Japanese-American friend in my backyard. We decided to play army — as kids often did in those days. I said something like, “let’s fight the Japs.” I immediately recognized what I’d done and said, “oh, sorry.” He said it was okay and we fought the Germans instead.)
Those days were not idyllic. Cultural sensitivity was not something anyone gave any consideration to. LGBTQ kids were deep in the closet and the very idea of idea of same sex relationships or questioning gender identity seemed like science fiction — if we’d thought of them at all. It was a terribly sexist society and we all conformed to gender norms. Besides, girls were yucky. There was a wonderful freedom to being a kid that I don’t think I fully appreciated at the time. I made the fifteen-minute walk to school myself. If it rained I got a lift. I also left school at lunch everyday to walk to my grandmother’s for lunch. She lived but a block away from my elementary school. There I dined with her golden retriever, Sisu. He got a good portion of my meal. I was a Cub Scout for a few years. It was pretty low key and didn't entail a lot besides den meetings, baseball games and various excursions. Most of my friends were cub scouts too so it was mostly an extension of our usually hijinks only with a few adults around getting in the way.
My junior high was a few blocks from our house so I went home for lunch. I didn’t eat lunch at school until I was in high school. I never took a bus to school either. I walked everywhere. It’s a habit that I still maintain. I love long walks.
It all came to a screeching halt when I discovered a talent for playing soccer and was on a team, then another and was eventually playing year around. Inevitably I discovered girls, that changed everything. But nothing kept me from my long wanderings around the city.
I walked thirty-five minutes to a movie yesterday. I suppose most people don’t walk half as much as I do. I can think what I want. Turn down any street I fancy. Cut through a particular neighborhood. Just like when I was a kid.
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